1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a system and a method for managing a subscription for a data communications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The amount of electronic devices being possessed by a single user is increasing. It appears that users are keen on connecting internet (i.e. having a data access) more often and in more varying situations. Therefore, the need of owning various devices suitable for such situations is growing. Device manufacturers have been paid attention to this need, and have provided wide range of devices that can be used for accessing data and for electronic communication. However, what has not been thought about in the same extent is how to arrange these devices to operate over a common feature.
There are known solutions for sharing a common feature between several devices. For example, a publication WO 99/01998 discloses sharing a single subscription to a mobile radio telephone network within a user group, where each user has a mobile telephone (being predefined for the system). The user group has a system identity and each user has a member identity, which both are needed when the subscription is commonly used. The system comprises a service node that is configured to control incoming and outgoing connections to each user. Another example is disclosed in a publication WO 01/95128, where a group of users share a network infrastructure. In this publication, a plurality of clients existing close to each other are capable of sharing a common gateway that is a primary interface for connecting network outside the group premises. Yet another example is disclosed in a publication EP 1,768,323 where functionality of a device can be expanded with features of another device. This can be done with a share module existing in both devices. By means of the share module a first device without e.g. multimedia messaging service, can send multimedia messages by using the multimedia messaging service of another device.
All the previous examples are targeted to a situation where multiple users, each having a device, share a common feature (a subscription, a bandwidth, a functionality). What is also important in such a situation, is to share charges of the common feature between the multiple users, especially if sharing of a subscription or bandwidth is in question. WO 01/95128 discloses that the applied charging model comprises paying for the bandwidth in advance by each client. WO 99/01998 on the other hand discloses a single subscriber fee that is paid for the operator and that the service node is configured to compile charging information on each member of a user group by means of a member identity.
However, none of these publications disclose a solution for the needs of a single user having multiple devices, each being capable of using e.g. a mobile data network. Such a solution should be usable for the single user so that s/he would not need to pay for the data access as many times as s/he has the devices, but also the solution should be trustworthy from the operator's point of view so that no other person than the actual subscriber could use the data access—or if could, it would be charged differently.